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A BRIEF NOTICE 



iilu iii^Kitl Hill fii^rEifttir 



GOV. HAMILTON, 



OF SOUTH CAROLINA 



There lie the rntns of the noblest heart that e'ver 
lived In the tide of times." — Julics Csxis. 



WASHINGTON : 

HENRT POLKINHORN, PRINTER. 

1 857. 



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i)eat[i of 6oti. lorailton. 



The tidings of the dreadful deaih of this great and 
j;:ood man, which fell from the telegraph upon his af- 
tlicted friends "■ like a tliuaderbolt, from Heaven," are 
now too bitterly confirmed. In ihe stillness of the mid- 
night waste of waters and in tiie deep hush of his quiet 
slumbers, i his noble spirit was, v.iihout anitjmeut's v/arn- 
in?, by an act of murderous negligence, hurled, amid the 
tumultuous rusli of waters, into the jiresence of his eter- 
nal Creator. What severity of punishment can be ade- 
quate to such atrocious dereliction of ordinary duty ".' 
What depth of grief in the nsourning friends of the noh!« 
victim can assuage the agony of their tortured hearts? 
Well may we exclaim, in the language of the inspired 
prophet, " I say unto you one of the princes of the eartji 
has fallen ;" not a pri iCe in eartlil^ station, or in worldly 
wealth, bvit in the intinitely higher qualities of the ex- 
alted soul, the noble and magnanimous heart — a heart 
gifted with an expansive generosity and benevolence 
that knew no limits to its charity and philanthropy. The 
kindness of his heart, and the depth of feeling of his 
generous nature were indeed above the character ©f hu- 
manity ; insomuch that few, very few men were capable 
of comprehending, appreciating, or believing the extent 
of his utter unselfishness in his every thought and ac- 
tion. The two great ruling maximsi of his life, not merely 
uttered but practised, were, first, the noble Roman moral 
'^ Ilaud ignarus rnali, miseris succurrere disco," and the 
" second was like unto it,"' '■^ Homo sum, et nil humani a me 
alienum puto." V/ith the sternest and most enduring for- 
titude of suffering for himself, the writer of this feeble 
tribute, (to whom his great and good heart was an open 
book, and none knew him so intimately from childhood,) 
has again and again seen him moved t© tears by the suf- 
ferings of the wretched and the unfortunate. In the 
service of his friends and of the distressed his utter for- 
getfulness of self was of the most extraordinary cha- 
racter. For virtues such as these surely he was worthy 



of Heaven's highest rewards ; and we humbly trust; that 
God, iu his pleuitude of goodness, has now this exalted 
spirit in his holy keeping. Amongst the noble traits of 
his elevated nature the one most remarkab.e was that of 
his never speaking ill of any human being, exhibiting 
the most geuuine spirit of Christianity in returning at 
all times good for evil ; never derogating from another 
nor arrogating aught for himself; but ever exhibiting 
the noblest modesty and humility as to his own great, 
merits and abilities. On all occasions (and they were 
constantly occurring) when this writer would speak with 
indignant anathemas of the ingratitude of those whom 
"once his noble bounty fed," whom his benefactions had 
raised from the dust and rendered rich and arrogant, 
and who, many of them, became his worst enemies when 
misfortunes and calamities had befallen him, his only 
reply was at all times, "I deplore the depravity and 
weakness of human nature, and grieve that mankind can 
be capable of such ingratitude." If the Almighty, in 
his merciful providence, had allowed him to survive for 
one brief year longer, (a wish that he himself of late 
had most ardently expressed,) and had permitted him 
further to serve his native State in the United States 
Senate, for even one Session, he would then have done 
full justice to his exalted genius ; and there his great 
eloquence would have shone forth in its full etfulgence, 
in its appropriate sphere ; for his friends have constantly 
declared that he has never yet stood in the proper arena 
to exhibit his great powers of mind and the full radiance 
of his glowing eloquence. It has frequently occurred 
in former days, at the public meetings of Charleston, 
that his spontaneous bursts of eloquence have been re- 
garded as far superior to the most labored efforts of 
Hayne and McDuflSe, and equal to the highest oratory of 
the gifted Treston. Such, too, was the character of his 
speeches on the Hoor of Congress, and especially in those 
noble and soul-stirring eulogies on his beloved friends, 
Decatur and Terry, when he advocated and obtained a 
pension for the widows of these much-loved companions 
of his boyhood, who had bequeathed to him, as their 
cherished friend, the dying legacy of their battle-swords, 
which had achieved such glory for their country. For 
one other object also he expressed the desire to survive 
the coming year, and that was to arrange, for the benefit 
of his family, his friends, and his creditors, his own 
vastly complicated private affairs, which, in consequeace 



.of his former gi'eat sacrifices in behalf of Texas, and 
from the princely munificence with which he ever suc- 
cored the distressed, he has unfortunately left in almost 
irretrievable involvement and confusion. But, alas ! the 
infinite Creator has decreed it as to himself seemed best, 
and we can only bow in profound submission to his Al- 
mighty will, and must exclaim, in one of the favorite 
apothegms of this noble being — 

" As falls on me or storm or sun, 

Thy will, oh God ! not mine, be done." 
Still, in the weak fondness of human nature, his friends 
cannot help expressing the now vain wish that the Al- 
mighty had permitted him to have died a nobler death, 
and one belter suited to the naturally grand aspirations 
of his elevated soul ; that he could at least have per- 
ished like the gallant Herndon, in the exertion of the 
noblest efforts to save his fellow-beings ; in the discharge 
of the highest duties of humanity ; when such a death 
would have conferred, as the greatness of his soul so 
well deserved, a glorious immortality of fame. Such a 
death is indeed greatly to be envied, for then — 

" How sleep the brave who sink to rest 
By all their country's wishes blest !" 
But now, alas ! the reflection is most agonizing to his 
friends, and must have inflicted the most terrific, even 
though momentary, torture on his noble heart, to have 
been thus hopelessly and helplessly stifled by the over- 
whelming flood in that contracted prison, without the 
possible power of making one single though dying efi'ort 
either for himself or his fellow-sufferers. This indeed 
is the source of the most poignant and bitter anguish to 
his suffering friends. Here, "Oh death! is thy most 
dreadful sting ; here, oh grave ! is thy most cruel vic- 
tory." If there was one moment spared to him when 
roused by that awful deluge from his deep slumbers, 
that moment, be assured, was devoted to a dying effort 
to save his fellow-beings — helpless women and frantic 
children ; and thus it must have been that he perished. 
It is beyond a doubt that his serene and lofty cour- 
age never forsook him for one moment, and that his 
clear and calm spirit burnt steadily to the last. " Cum 
fractus illabitur or bis. Jmpavidum feriunt ruinw." But, 
great God ! what a whirl of crushing sensations, not for 
himself, but for his intensely loved family and friends, 
must have agonized the breaking of that mighty heart, 
the last struggle of that parting soul ! Indeed it is al- 



6 



most enough to create ia us a misgiving of the goodness 
as-iJ mercy of God (unless we can believe with tlie great. 
Schiller that " prosperity in this world is but the herit- 
age of the fortunate and successful fool,") when we be- 
hold so noble a nature suffering for years from worldly 
troubles, and finally expiring in agony, whilst thousands 
of mere sensual animals and mercenary creatures are 
wallowing, without a care, in worldly wealth. Truly tho 
mysteries of Providence are to our feeble brain wholly- 
inexplicable, and far beyond our capacity and reach. 
We must be content to worship in awe-struck humility 
and wondering adoration, and must be inspired with the 
certain convietion, by (his signal instance alone, that 
tliere. must be another and abetter world. 

Gen. Hamilton was born at Charleston, South Caro- 
lina, in the year 1789. His maternal grandfather, Thos. 
Lynch, not only signed the Declaration of Independence, 
but was the autlior of the first address and remonstrance 
to the British House of Commons in the first Congress 
of the Colonies after the passage of the stamp act. His 
father, the late venerable Major Hamilton, of the old 
continental line, was a I'avorite aid of the great Wash- 
ington ; commanded one of the regiments of Wayne's 
brigade, and was gallantly distinguished in almost every 
important battle of the Revolution. The invincible love 
of liberty and elevated spirit of patriotism for which his 
ancestors were so eminent were inherited by himself in 
their highest vigor. In the war of 1812 Gen. (then Ma- 
jor) Hamilton served with great distinction throughout 
the Canadian campaigns. At the termination of the war 
he returned to the practice of the law in Charleston, in 
copartnership with the late' eminent Judge Huger ; and 
was soon after elected mayor of the city, the duties of 
which oflice he discharged with signal ability, and espe- 
cially in the year 1822, when he exhibited remarkable 
energy, sagacity, and courage in suppressing a most dan- 
gerous insurrection. In the following year he was elected 
to the State Legislature, and was there also highly dis- 
tinguished for the power, eloquence, and ability of his 
speeches on many important occasions. In the year 1824 
he was elected to Congress as successor to the great Wil- 
liam Lowndes, who had been one of his dearest friends, 
and whose death he most deeply deplored. At this pe- 
riod the vexed question of a protective tariff was the 
ruling subject of the most angry and excited debate, and 
Gen. Hamilton soon took a leading part in this great dis- 
cussion, and delivered some of the most eloquent and 



powerful speeches in opposition to that unjust and uneoR' 
stitutional system, and was tlien regarded as next to liis 
oW friend and connection, John E,andolph, in power of 
debate and severity of invective. Hamiltonhadalwaysbeen 
in favorof a system of direct taxation During his Congres- 
sional career Gen. Hamilton achieved, from his high 
courtesy and chivalry of character, the epithet of " the 
Chevalier Bayard of the South," and well-merited was 
the comparison, for no man was ever more eminently 
distinguished for "high and nobie thought, situate in a 
heart of courtesy," and none ever acted out more fully 
the elevated principle '■'■ parcere suhjectis, debellare super- 
hos." As was said of the great Sydney, the flower of 
knighthood and the cynosure of chivalry, by one of the 
most finished writers of our language, "at the name of 
Hamilton, (Sydney,) the galiunt, all-accomplished Ha- 
milton, the roused soul awakes, as at the call of a silver 
trumpet, to all the grand and glorious associations of 
chivalry and romance;" and to those "grand and glo- 
rious associations" no human being was so sensitively 
and feelingly alive as Hamilton, and nothing in the whole 
scope of human composition has surpassed in splendor 
and in touching pathos his own glorious apostrophe to 
the peerless and serene intrepidity of the illustrious Hu- 
guenot chieftain, Du Plessis Mornay, from whose noble 
stock (amongst the earliest settlers of Carolina) some of 
Hamilton's maternal ancestors were descended. But, 
since the departure of Calhoun and Hamilton, the world 
appears to be disenchanted of magnanimous chivalry, 
and seems now to be (as Madame de Stael said) a world of 
" merely eating, drinking, bargain-making men." When 
in Congress he was called upon to act as the second of 
many of his friends, and, amongst others, of McDuffie, 
and of Randolph in his celebrated duel with the illus- 
trious Clay ; but no man ever (though himself engaged 
when a young oilicer in the army in numerous duels) com- 
posed and reconciled so many controversies And in 
every duel in which he was, with the deepest regret of 
his feeling heart, forced by circumstances beyond his 
control to engage, he invariably inflicted so slight a 
wound (being undoubtedly the most calm and perfect 
shot of our country) as merely to disarm his opponent, 
in his own defence, and never failed to place his ball at 
the precise point he had previously indicated to his se- 
cond. In many of tiie cases, where he acted as second, 
as in that of McDuffie, he assumed upon himself the re- 
sponsibility of forbidding their progress ; and, in the 



case of Clay and llanciolpli, he made every possible 
effort, though in vain, to reconcile their lamented ijiiartel. 

In the celebrated contest for the Presidency between 
Jackson and Adams Gen. Hamilton vyas a conspicuous 
champion of the former, and contributed more to his 
success than any other statesman of our country. In. 
gratitude for which Gen. Jackson offered him first the 
post of Secretary of War, and afterwards that of Min- 
ister to Mexico, with power to negotiate the purchase of 
Texas ; botli of which offers were declined, in conse- 
quence of his determination to accept the proffered Gov- 
ernorship of South Carolina, and to oppose in that State 
by a nullification (or State injunction upon its operation) 
the system of protective tariffs, until some just compro- 
mise be effected, or the adequate tribunal of her sove- 
reiffii jieers, a Convention of the States, should be called 
to decide upon the sovereign right of a State veto on a 
clearly imconstitutional act. This Governor Hamilton ac- 
cordingly carried into effect, and continued this State 
injunction upon its enforcement until the noble spirit of 
the illustrious Clay effected that great compromise which 
established its gradual reduction to the revenue stan- 
dard, and conceded iu its practical effect the final aban- 
donment of the piotective system. 

This greatly agitated question of State nullification 
has been utterly misunderstood and misrepresented 
V)y its opponents, who have constantly confounded it 
with the diametrically opposite doctrine of secession 
and disunion. As well might we confound the in- 
junction of a court of justice upon the operation of a 
disputed act of Congress, until its constitutionality could 
be tested, with an act of practical rebellion and actual 
warfare, or a formal and avowed withdrawal from the 
Union. So entirely the reverse of secession is the act of 
State nullification upon an unconstitutional act, passed 
by a sectional and factious majority in Congress, that 
when General Jackson sent to Gov. Hamilton the anti- 
Slate Rights and un-Democratic proclamation of the old 
Federalist, Edward Livingston, together with his denun- 
ciation of what he regarded as an act of disunion, the 
reply of Gov. Hamilton was that '• South Carolina did not 
intend to leave the Union unless the Federal Executive should 
drive her out by military force, and that the first blood of a 
citizen must be shed by the chief agent or attorney of all 
the States, and not by the chief agent or attorney of South 
Carolina." But Jackson was ever most unyielding in 



both his enniiiies and his friendships, and, as McDuflSe 
Haidofhim, '■' impijer, iracimdus, inexurahilis, acer" Alter 
the pacific settlement of this great and vital question, 
by the compromise of the immortal patriot Clay, Gov. 
Hamilton retired to the quiet pursuits of country-life ; 
and, when Gov. Seabrook appointed him to succeed the 
great Calhoun in the United States Senate, (at the dying 
request of Calhoun himself,) he declined the appoint- 
ment, for domestic reasons, and the eminent civilian, 
Judge Daniel Huger, was selected in his place. Soon 
after this Gen. Hamilton became deeply interested in the 
fate of Texas, then struggling into existence, and gene- 
rously assisted her great efforts for independence, not 
only by heavy advances from his private funds, but by 
acting as her Minister Plenipotentiary to the diiferent 
Courts of Europe ; from which Courts he, with signal 
ability, and after extraordinary efforts, obtained the re- 
cognition of her independence, and afterwards exerted 
all his influence to obtain her admission into our Union. 
For all his great sacrifices and services in her behalf, that 
Republic and that State have returned him neither grati- 
tude nor remuneration. From the ruin which those great 
sacrifices have cruelly brought upon him, he has been, 
for the last ten years of his eventful life, like the great 
Marius, and the greater Belisarius, a living monument 
of the " ingratitude of States and Republics." In regard 
to the ingratitude of men and the abuse of his enemies, 
no man has ever regarded them with such quiet and inef- 
fable contempt in the high consciousness of his own in- 
tegrity of soul, amidst the most overwhelming misfortunes 
and the most torturing domestic afflictions, ^^3Ienscon- 
scia recti mendacia fanuK ridet." 

His religious creed (though educated in and professing 
the doctrines of the Episcopal church) was of the most 
beautiful and touching character, partaking greatly of 
the tenets of the good and righteous Swedenborg, at least 
in so far as to believe that "friends who are dead are 
angels smt on errands full of love;" and, as one gifted 
with the most seraphic genius wrote — 

"Such beings walk with us thro' life, 
Beside its thousand streams, 
As sweetly and as spiritually 
As angels in our dreams." 

In the fullness of this belief he would constantly feel 
and express the most perfect conviction that his visions 
" in the mid-watches of the night," and the appearance 



10 



and communications of his friends, were in fact their 
real and not their imaginary presence, and especially 
those of his beloved children, and of his great and mosi 
fondly revered friend. Calhoun, whose spotless purity 
the most virulent breath of slander has never dared to 
asperse, and with whose mighty and clierished spirit the 
soul of Hamilton held nightly communion. They had 
been like the most deeply attached brothers in life, and 
now they are united in death. He was a tirni believer 
in the recognition and association of friends in a future 
state, and ever expressed the conviction, as one of his 
highest hopes of immortality, that he would be in ever- 
lasting communion with liis most cherished friend, Cal- 
houn ; for there had ever been, from the perfect purity 
and morality of their lives, the deepest sympathy be- 
tween these two great souls. 

" Then, as holjost men have taught, there be 

A land o souls beyond yon sable shore, 
To shame the doctrines of the Sadducee, 

And Srjphis's madly vain of dubious lore, 
How sweet 'twill be in concert to adore 

With those who made our mortal labors light, 
To hear each voice we feared lo hear no more, 

Behold each cherished shade revealed to sight ; 
The Bactrian, Samian Sage, and all who taught the right." 

The morality, purity, and temperance of Gen. Hamil- 
ton were of the highest order, and all the domestic vir- 
tues he possessed in an eminent and enviable degree. 
His deep devotion and almost childlike adoration of 
his most venerable and patriarchal father (even when 
he was Governor, and amidst the turmoil of nullifica- 
tion and of arming the State for her defence) were the 
subject of wonderment to those who knew not the perfect 
simplicity of his loving nature. As a husband his de- 
voted loyalty was of the most elevated and chivalrous 
character, and as a father his afiTection for his children 
amounted almost to idolatry. His habits were of the ut- 
most simplicity, like those of Democritus and Zeno, and 
he never indulged in one single article of mere gratifica- 
tion to the senses. At the grandest banquets, and none 
ever gave more sumptuous ones than himself when 
Governor, he invariably selected the simplest dish, and 
with that he was content ; nor did he ever expend a dollar 
for luxury or splendor, though he devoted a vast fortune 
to the service of his State in preparing her to defend her 
homes and firesides from the invasion of Jackson. 



11 



Like all great men, he had the most perfect contempt 
for " vile luo'e" in itself, and for the base misers who wor- 
ship it, and only attached any sort of value to it as one of 
the means of doing good, where it may assist the philan- 
thropist in acts of benevolence and in the relief of suffer- 
ing humanity ; and this writer has known him, in his 
once great prosperity, to give thousaniis to the needy 
and the wretched For all other purposes he regarded 
it as mere " earthly dross," and beneath the regard of any 
good or great mind ; agreeing with Lord Bacon that '•the 
only true end of just ambition is the power to do good;'" 
and this noble purpose of doing good was the sole aim 
and object of his life. For his native State, whilst he 
possessed the means and power, his efforts were unceas- 
ing and his sacrifices were unparalleled Amongst other 
great objects to which he devoted his resources and his 
energies, the extensive, important, and at that time un- 
equalled railroad enterprise for constructing " the South 
Carolina railroad" throughout the length of the State was 
projected and established by his devoted efforts ; and re- 
peatedly was it sustained and saved from failure by his 
means and his exertions. For his native city of Charleston 
also he made greater sacrifices and expenditures of private 
means than any other citizen. To him is she indebted 
for the establishment of her beautiful public walks, her 
Battery, or Prado, (as he desired it should be named,) by 
devoting to that purpose at an almost nominal value the 
most eligible locations and dwellings of himself and his 
brother-in-law, Judge Prioleau. lie originated and es- 
tablished the celebrated " Southern Review," and wrote 
many of its ablest and most eloquent articles. He also 
established when Governor that admirable and solid in- 
stitution, the "Bank of Charleston," which has never 
(with its immense capital of over five millions) ceased to 
pay specie in ^any crisis, and which, after his retirement 
from public life, lie conducted with signal ability until 
he unfortunately resigned his post as president, to en- 
gage, with all the impulsive and generous enthusiasm of 
his noble heart, in the cause of Texas ; for which coun- 
try he made the most ruinous sacrifices of his own 
great resources to secure her independence. From 
this his contempt of lucre, and of all those who so greatly 
worship it, many of those who had lost by his heavy 
sacrifices and embarrassments in behalf of Texas, and, 
by his subsequent failure, had become his enemies. 
When, at the time of his failure, his friends urged him 



12 



to take the benefifc of the bankrupt, act, merely to free 
himself from persecutiun until he could arrange his 
widely-extended and complicated affairs and settle with 
his creditors in quietude and jusiice, he indignantly re- 
pelled the proposal, nobly exclaiming, " 1 will do no- 
thing that can bear the slightest semblance to taking ad- 
vantage of any creditor, but will hibor with every power 
that God has bestowed upon me for their benefit, amidst 
all persecutions, to my latest breath." The consequence 
of this noble conduct has been, as his friends predicted, 
(with very lew honorable exceptions,) the most virulent, 
harassing, and unrelenting persecution, whilst his exer- 
tions for his persecutors have been herculean, self-sacri- 
licing, and unceasing to the very last moment of his life, 
for he was then on his way to labor for them in pressing 
his claims upon ti:e Texas Legislature for their heavy 
debt to him for his great advances and his greater ser- 
vices. Such is the gratitude of a heartless and merce- 
nary world ! But, as he himself so beautifully said, in 
one of his eloquent eulogies upon his great compeer and 
most intimate friend, Calhoun, "His enemies, like the 
Indian who madly fired his arrow at the Sun, shall, at 
the great day of account, be struck down with blindness 
and dismay." And now, that his gallant and dauntless 
spirit has departed from his cold and stiffened corpse, 
let no fiendish hyena sacrilegiously dare to prowl, no das- 
tardly and recreant ass venture " to kick against the 
body of the dead lion." Hamilton had not the slightest 
desire for power and place or political preferment, (not 
even for the Presidency,) except in so far as it might en- 
able him to do good to his felloiv-beings. And his chief, if 
not his only, object in at all desiring the United States 
Senatorship, was to do, if possible, some justice to the he- 
roism and pa'riotism of the martyrs of the Revolution, 
(to whom we owe our country and our independence,) 
by aiding in the noble and glorious work of gratitude 
and right, in passing an act to provide for their still un- 
settled pay for the benefit of their suffering descendants. 
Beyond this "power to do good" he had no desire what- 
ever for any office, however high it might appear in the 
estimation of the world ; and no degree of scorn and con- 
tempt could exceed that which he at all times uttered 
against the despicable scramble for place and pelf with 
which our country is disgraced. From this feeling it was 
that he has so long preferred the retirement of private life. 
Whenever he would in any way refer to the abuse of his 



13 



enemies, (and he had not one on earth beyond the worship' 
pers of lucre who had lost something by his overwhelm- 
ing misfortunes,) iie wouhi draw himself proudly up and 
exclaim, with the grandest expression on his nobly ex- 
pressive face, lit up by his elevated soul, " Let them re- 
turn their vile abuse for all tlie ett'orts r.nd sacrifices 1 
am making in their behalf; I despise their abuse, for / 
KNOW that I am an honent man.'" And again, on one of 
these occasions, iu the language of tlie great, patriot, 
Emmett, he would exclaim, '• When I am dead let no 
man dare to charge me with dishonor ; let no man 
write my epitaph unless he knows my motives, and 
dares to vindicate them ; otherwise let them and me 
repose inobscurity andpe'ace uniil enmity and prejudice 
shall pass away — until other times and other men tdiall 
do justice to my character ; then, and not till then, let 
my epitaph be written " That epitaph, noble spirit, 1 
would fain essay to write, if 1 could imbibe the inspira- 
tion of your own glowing and soul-stirring eloquence ; 
for none, as you well know, so loved you from childhood, 
"with alove passing the love of woman." But, alas! I 
am neither gifted with your lofty genius, (which none 
have so well known, and to which you have never done 
justice by any labored effort,) nor if I were so gifted 
would the depth of my grief allow of its coherent utter- 
ance ; for, 

" Whilst memorj bida me weep thee 

Nor thoughts nor words are free ; 

The grief is fixed too deeply, 

That mourns a man like thee." 

I must be content to write down for your epitaph that 
glorious Roman verse which you so much cherished, and 
which, if you could have died (as you so often wished) 
the death of the patriot and the hero, you would have 
made (like the immortal martyr, Egmont, whose memory 
you so greatly venerated) your last, your dying words : 

" Justum et tenacem propositi virnm 
Non civium ardor prava jubentium 
Non vultus instaniis tyranni, 
Nee fulminantis magna Jovis manus 
Mente quatit solida." AMICUS. , 



14 



Since the foregoing was written, the public journals 
have contained a most powerful and eloquent Address 
of Gov. Hamilton to the Legislature of South Carolina, 
written just before embarking on tlie fatal steamer in 
which he was so ruthlessly slain. From this noble Ad- 
dress we extract the lollovving most feeling allusion and 
glorious apostrophe to the august spirit of the great 
Calhoun : 

In the session in which Mr. Ciilhoun died, I was in Washingion, and 
for six weeks preceding bis decease I was the constiUK companion of 
Ills sicit l)ed. Instead of seeking the hospitality of the metropolis, 
every evening of my life I sought tiie instructive consolations of tho 
conversation of my great friend. Although sinking hour by bdur, his 
cheorlulness as little de-erled him as his tenderness and affection to his 
frit nds. His great intellect, like the glnrious luminary of tho world, 
seemed to shine with a milder yet more perfect radiance as it was about 
to dip beyond the horizon forever V\ e weie generally alone, and at an 
hour just before sunset, which prevented the inirusion of other visitors, 
to whom he generally (lenied himself, his conversation had an indescri- 
bable interest, and was imbued with the charm of a tenderness and 
charity to others of unspeakable beauty. 

These conversations, when he spnke of the South, were mournful 
and melancholy in the extreme. He foretold the point we have reached. 
The poitentous augmentation of the slavery excitement, the increase 
of extravagance and corruption, the centralization of the wealth and 
commerce of the country in one capital — an accumulation which would 
lead to the most frightful revulsion — all of which would drive the South 
out of the Confederacy, if the evil was not speedily arrested. 

In one of these conversations, laying his hand upon my arm, he said: 
" My friend, you must return to the public service of our State, to carry 
out my principles and unfinished labors. A great crisis will come when 
her inicresta and your reputation will demand it." 

But I must stop. A sense of delicacy and propriety prevents my going 
any further with these disclosures. The reasons of his preference of 
myself are locked in my own bosom. To recollect them seems " to 
recover a part of the forgotten value of existence." In the hour of ad- 
verse fortune, sweot will ever be their odor, sweet the balm of their 
consolation ! August Spirit, at the throne of the Almighty ! Look 
down from that footstool, where you gaze undazzled at the glories of 
your God, and bless the State wliich in life ynu served wiih so much 
honor! Look down, too with tenderness on your weak, humble, and 
suffering friend, who believes the crisis has come when he might obey 
your high commands. He comes ready to peril all of life and honor on 
the issue, if others will it so. Mighty Spirit, all hail, and farewell ! 

Etjually beautiful was his Letter in reply to the re- 
quests of his friends who urged him to be a candidate 
for the United States Senatorship. From this Letter we 
make the following extract : 

I belong to a post generation — to a confederation of men who have 
passed from the strif':s and contentions of this fitful and feverish world 
to an immortality of happiness. When I think of those companions of 
my then comparaiive youth, those associates in a glorious siruggle, " my 
heart grows liquid as I write, and I could pour it out like water." £ 
hope that 1, the humblest of the throng, may be permitted to place a 



15 



or garland on their graves. They rise Unbidden to my memory m all 
Me strong lineaments of Jife. 

Tliere stands (.'allioun, in all the grandeur of his genius and ihe so- 
hdity of his immovalilo integrity. What inscription of praise does he 
need beyond the utterance of his name .' 

There stands Hayne, in all the mild radiance of his characler, with 
an ability of the highest possible compass, with nil his transcendant 
powers for government and administration, pure, spotless, and undis- 
mayed. 

"i here stands McDufRe. with his robust intellect and stern honesty, 
e-xerling powers of analysis and argumr-nt which made him one of the 
first dialecticians ol his time, and with a Roman patriotism which 
burned even in the portal caverns of tlie tomb. 

There stands 'J'urnbull, whose head was as yigantic as his heart was 
incorruptible — who, with his line Grecian face, disclosed the great 
qualities of the race from which he sprung — burning enthusiasm, in- 
tense genius, and unconquerable courage. 

'I'here stands Harper, a bright emana'ion of that intelligrnce which 
God confers on the most gifted of his creatuies — simple, artless, and 
with a subjugated seif love beyond all praise. 

Of the leaders of " the old guard" but two of us are left — I'reston 
and the humble individual who addresses you. Preston, who, having 
been sorely smitten by the hand of infirmlly, slill survives, ihanli God, in 
renovated health and usefulness. It was said by a distinguished colem- 
porary that our association contained a gieat and extraordinary variety 
of talent, a place for every man, and eveiy man suited to his place, and 
that no country was ever better prepared for revolution than South Caro- 
lina in the efficiency of her public agents. Preston was emphatically 
our orator, and was the first orator of his time. The variegaied rich- 
ness of his imagination, the purity of his taste, his power of argument, 
as if he had never cultivated aught but the severe faculty of raliocina- 
tioo, whilst over all he flung the drapery of a most attractive modesty, 
and a private character without reproach- An associaiion with such 
men, however humble my station, each of whom was fined for empire, 
is a full measure of honor, without my looking further for distinction. 



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